Summary
- EarthBound's weirdness stood out & garnered niche fans, inspiring successors like Undertale.
- Tactics Ogre introduced grid-based strategy RPG mechanics that influenced future titles.
- Chrono Trigger redefined RPG norms with innovations like real-time combat and time-travel.
A lot of video game fans who grew up in the 90s still feel like the SNES was a high point. It’s easy to see why as video game fever was bigger than it had ever been at that point. Graphics were better, stories were more engaging, and gameplay felt smoother.
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Some games still hold up thanks to all of these features and many developers still look back on the SNES for inspiration. These games specifically became touchstones and their influences are still felt to this day. This doesn’t necessarily mean these games are the best on the system, but they were game changers all the same.
8 EarthBound
Making RPGs Weird
Earthbound
- Released
- June 5, 1995
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- HAL Laboratory, Ape Inc.
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Platform(s)
- SNES, Nintendo Game Boy Advance
- Genre(s)
- RPG
EarthBound wasn’t immediately popular for two reasons. First, RPGs weren’t as big on the SNES despite the console having some absolute bangers. Second, it was just weird even by RPG standards. It was released in 1995 in North America with a big push from Nintendo to make it a thing, including a guidebook that is now beyond rare.
It gained a niche crowd over the decades with fans paying tribute via rom hack sequels. One of those hackers was Toby Fox who later went on to create Undertale which exploded in 2015. EarthBound- likes and Undertale-likes are now a genre unto themselves as fans still wait for Nintendo to either release Mother 3 in English or to make a fourth game.
7 Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Grid-Based Strategy Is Born
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
- Released
- October 6, 1995
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Quest Corporation
- Publisher(s)
- Quest Corporation, Artdink, Atlus, Riverhillsoft
- Platform(s)
- SNES, Sega Saturn, PlayStation (Original)
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Tactical
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together was released for the SNES in 1995 in Japan only. It would not hit the West until 1998 via the PS1 port. This was after Final Fantasy Tactics, making it look like a copycat. It was not the first grid-based tactical RPG, but it did solidify a lot of mechanics that even Fire Emblem wasn’t doing.
The mature and branching story, the class system, and the overall design of the grid. Developers from this game went on to make Final Fantasy Tactics and made history, which inspired many tactical RPGs to follow. Its success can be linked back to Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together even though it, or the Ogre Battle series as a whole, never truly got its time in the sunlight.
6 Chrono Trigger
Redefining RPGs
Chrono Trigger
- Released
- March 11, 1995
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Platform(s)
- SNES, PlayStation (Original), PC, Nintendo DS, Android, iOS
- Genre(s)
- RPG
Chrono Trigger bucked the trend for many RPGs of this era in too many ways to count. Monsters appeared in dungeons, there were no random encounters on the world map, combat was turn-based but took place presently and not in an instanced arena, and so on.
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Plus the very idea of a time-traveling game was novel in 1995. It only got one sequel, or maybe one could say one and a half sequels, but its legacy looms over the RPG genre as one of the many GOATs that still inspires to this day despite Square Enix's unwillingness to do anything with it.
5 Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars
Making Turn-Based Active
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Released
- May 13, 1996
WHERE TO PLAY
There are a lot of Mario games that could be seen as influential on the SNES. As important as Super Mario World was, the platformer genre was well-established in the 90s. Super Mario 64 was the platformer that took the genre to new heights. So instead, let’s look at Mario’s first RPG, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, which was developed in partnership with Squaresoft.
It was a late release for the system in 1996, but the faux 3D graphics showed the SNES wasn’t dead yet. It also did something unlike RPGs before it, making the turn-based combat interactive. Players could time their attacks or blocks to do extra damage. Squaresoft, or Square Enix, never made a sequel but Nintendo branched the franchises into two distinct series: Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi. The active battle system inspired many others beyond Nintendo’s market for Mario.
4 Super Metroid
Samus’ Saving Grace
Super Metroid
- Released
- April 18, 1994
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Platform(s)
- SNES
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Metroidvania
Super Metroid is one of the best games on the SNES, which was released in 1994. It was popular but it didn’t break any records for Nintendo. Thanks to that, the franchise went to sleep for a while but eventually came back sporadically with some stellar sequels.
More importantly, it inspired Castlevania to borrow its formula albeit with some RPG tweaks in 1997 via Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Thanks to that game and Super Metroid, the Metroidvania was born. It wasn’t something that took off immediately but both games laid the seeds for the genre to make a boom in the indie scene decades later.
3 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Hyrule’s Formula Is Set
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Released
- April 13, 1992
- ESRB
- E For Everyone Due To Mild Violence
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EAD
- Platform(s)
- SNES, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, 3DS
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
The NES Zelda games were popular but a bit meandering with their mechanics. The third entry, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, is when the real Zelda formula was born. Link stumbles into an adventure with a sword and shield, and collects a few precious items only for that to kickstart a new collection of MacGuffins after that.
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The formula became predictable up until 2017 with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but that’s not a bad thing. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the best top-down entry in the series and its simplistic nature makes it so easy to go back to.
2 Super Mario Kart
Speeding Into Stardom
Super Mario Kart
- Released
- September 1, 1992
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EAD
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Platform(s)
- SNES, Wii, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch
- Genre(s)
- Racing
With so many Mario games on the SNES, it would be impossible to just cover one. More so than Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Super Mario Kart was the real trendsetter. It gave birth to the karting genre in 1992. It seems like every console that has an entry finds success.
The Switch launched in 2017 with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and it still remains a best-seller. Beyond sequels though, Super Mario Kart inspired many karting copycats from Crash Team Racing to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
1 Street Fighter 2
Round One, Fight!
Street Fighter 2
- Released
- March 7, 1991
WHERE TO PLAY
The karting genre is popular, but the fighting genre is even bigger. When Street Fighter premiered in arcades in 1987, no one seemingly cared. It wasn’t what the Street Fighter series or genre would become, but in 1991, that changed with Street Fighter 2.
It blew up in arcades and even made it to the SNES in 1992. Its combo system and character roster helped pave the way for a wild amount of copycats from Mortal Kombat in this generation to Tekken in the next. There’s no denying the power that a new Street Fighter brings to the table. It is to fighting games what Mario is to platformers.
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